News and Press Releases

St. Peter man pleads guilty to transporting illegal aliens

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 16, 2012

MINNEAPOLIS—Today in federal court, a 46-year-old St. Peter man pleaded guilty to one count of transporting illegal aliens. Juan Arrazolo, also known as John Arrazolo, was indicted on April 16, 2012 and entered his plea today before United States District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz.

In his plea agreement, Arrazolo admitted that between October 2006 and October 2011, he transported two undocumented aliens from Texas to Minnesota to work in his business. Arrazolo’s company, which did business as Poultry Service Management, provided manual labor to large corporate chicken farms in Minnesota and the surrounding area. The workers loaded chickens for shipping, vaccinated chickens, trimmed chicken beaks, and provided other general labor as requested by the poultry producer. Arrazolo admitted that one of the individuals he transported was a citizen of Mexico, and that he knew the individual was not a United States citizen when he transported the undocumented alien from Texas to Minnesota.

For his crime, Arrazolo faces a potential maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. Judge Schiltz will determine his sentence at a future hearing, yet to be scheduled.

This case is the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the St. Peter Police Department, the Nicollet County Sheriff’s Office, the LeSueur County Sheriff’s Office, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Steinkamp and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin P. Johnson.